The 17 Actions You Or Your Agency Should Be Doing For Your Google Ads Account (In Plain English!)

Intro to improving your Google Ads performance

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There will be a future when AI has taken over, robots run everything, Sarah Conner (Terminator, very anti-robot!) was finally accepted as a lunatic and PPC accounts optimize themselves. Until that future, work must be done to improve your Google Ads account over time. It’s not rocket science but there are a lot of moving parts to coordinate together to get good results.

The 17 Actions You Or Your Agency Should Be Doing For Your Google Ads Account (In Plain English!) (1)

A little bit about Google and PPC…

As much as Google would like businesses to believe they are a force for good in the world, Google is in the Pay-Per-Click business to the tune of $200 billion dollars a year. People searching for things and clicking on ads is how they make money. The power of this is immense because never before in advertising history did you have “search intent”, where the customer tells you exactly what they are looking for during a specific moment. Most advertising was “interruption” based where you simply get in the way of captive viewers who are not necessarily looking for what you are selling. Your business can now directly connect with these customers at the exact moment of purchase by using organic (aka free) and pay-per-click marketing (aka Google Ads).

Google Vs. Your Business or Google + Your Business?

While Google wants as many clicks as possible, you and your business want as many sales or leads (also called “conversions” in PPC) as possible. Google would love for you to give them complete control in how they spend your money but the obvious conflict is that you will pay for irrelevant or poor quality clicks, which leads to wasted ad spend.

A good PPC manager finds the high commercial intent targeting and moves the account over time in that direction. Google will get you conversions but it won’t necessarily optimize for spending your budget the most efficiently over time. They want clicks, you want customers. This can still be a mutually beneficial relationship similar to lions and vultures on the savannah. We’re the lions of course.

Here are 17 actions you or your agency should be taking

Reading through this list can help ensure that your account is moving in the right direction. These actions can take time to bear fruit but consistent action over time is how you end up with an efficient ads account that can scale with your business. Even if you don’t manage your ad account, it is helpful to understand a bit of the pay-per-click process to use the Google Ads platform for your business most effectively.

1. Google Ads Dashboard

This is like your control room. It’s where you can see how well your ads are doing and make changes to them. You can also perform a quick “overview” check here to make sure there are no issues in your account that need attention.

2. Search Terms Audit

This means looking at the words people are typing into Google that make your ad show up. If there are words that aren’t related to what you’re selling, you can stop your ad from showing up for those words.

3. Keyword Performance & Match Types

This means checking how well the words you picked for your ads are doing. If some words are doing really well, you might want to use them more. If some words aren’t doing well, you might want to use them less or not at all.

4. Keyword Status Warnings

Sometimes, Google will tell you if there’s a problem with the words you picked for your ads. If there’s a problem, you’ll need to fix it.

5. Ad Copy Review

This means looking at the words in your ad and making sure they’re good. You want to make sure your ad is interesting and tells people about what you’re selling.

6. Split Testing Ads & Ad Assets

This means trying out different versions of your ad to see which one people like best. You might try different images or different words to “test” which ones are the most effective for your business.

7. Landing Page Review

This means looking at the page people go to when they click on your ad. You want to make sure this page is good and makes people want to buy what you’re selling.

8. Ad Copy Warnings

Sometimes, Google will tell you if there’s a problem with the words in your ad. If there’s a problem, you’ll need to fix it.

9. Ad Extensions Review

This means looking at the extra bits of information you can add to your ad. These could be things like your phone number or a link to a specific page on your website.

10. Keyword Quality Score Review

Google gives a score to the words you pick for your ads. This score tells you how good those words are. You want to try and make this score as high as you can and you can pay less money for a customer because of this.

11. Bid Optimizations & Adjustment

This means deciding how much money you want to spend on your ads. You might want to spend more money on ads that are doing well and less money on ads that aren’t doing well.

12. Conversion Action Checks

This means making sure you’re keeping track of when people do something you want them to do, like buy something or sign up for your newsletter.

13. Location Targeting

This means deciding where you want your ads to show up. You might want your ads to show up in certain cities or countries.

14. Campaign Goal Checks

This means making sure your ads are helping you reach your goals. Your goal might be to sell more of something or to get more people to visit your website.

15. Quality Control Checks

This means regularly checking to make sure everything is working well with your ads. Any sudden issues or changes in account quality can be seen quickly to help pinpoint any problems that might affect overall ad performance.

16. The Auction Insights Report

This is a report that tells you how well your ads are doing compared to other businesses ads. It will show you your direct competitors in the Google Ads Auction, which determines how much you pay for your clicks and who is spending more or getting better quality scores.

17. The Recommendations Tab

This is a place in Google Ads where Google gives you tips on how to make your ads better. Just keep in mind that what they recommend is most likely optimal for Google, but not necessarily for your business goals.

In conclusion...

Still confused about what Pay-Per-Click advertising is? You’re in luck! Over the next 17 weeks we will cover (in plain English) how each action leads to better results over time. Next week we will cover the key benefits of the Google Ads Dashboard so follow along!

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Intro to improving your Google Ads performance

A little bit about Google and PPC…

Google Vs. Your Business or Google + Your Business?